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Dr. William Hoffman is the Chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCSF. He graduated cum laude from Yale University and obtained his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He completed training in General Surgery at UCSF in 1983 and in Plastic Surgery at UCSF in 1985.

An additional year of training was spent at the Institute for Reconstructive plastic Surgery at NYU with Dr. Joseph McCarthy studying craniofacial and cleft lip surgery. Subsequently Dr. Hoffman returned to UCSF to join the faculty, serving as the chief of plastic surgery at San Francisco General Hospital from 1988 to 1996, and Director of Education for the division from 1996 to 2005. He became the head of the division in 2005.

Recently, Dr. Hoffman led a successful effort to pass legislation in California greatly expanding insurance coverage for children with disfiguring cleft palate and other craniofacial anomalies. Hoffman, a pioneer of cranial re-animation surgery and acknowledged innovator in the field, performs complex and intricate surgeries at the UCSF Center for Craniofacial Anomalies. Working in tandem with orthodontists and other specialists, he and colleagues work to restore children's faces to a normal appearance as well as improving their breathing and ability to chew.

Dr. Hoffman is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.He is the primary craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgeon at UCSF, performing 300-400 pediatric operations a year on children with a wide range of deformities, including cleft lip and palate, craniosynostosis, facial palsy, hemangiomas, birthmarks, and vascular anomalies. His adult practice deals with complex facial reconstruction as well as facial aesthetic surgery, including facelifts, rhinoplasty, and blepharoplasty. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles as well as numerous invited chapters. Highly respected by his peers, Dr. Hoffman was named to the list of U.S. News "America's Top Doctors," a distinction reserved for the top 1% of physicians in the nation for a given specialty.

He is on the Board of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgery, the Executive Council of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons, is the current President of the American Society of Pediatric Plastic Surgery, and is a senior examiner for the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Please note: UCSF Profiles publications are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact CTSI for help.

In the News

In its survey for 2012, U.S. News in collaboration with Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. listed twenty-five (25) surgeons in the UCSF Department of Surgery, nearly one-third (1/3) of the clinical faculty, on the list of U.S. News "Top Doctors". The list, compiled from the opinion of colleagues, denotes the top 10% of physicians within a region practicing a given specialty.
Fifteen of the 25 department surgeons were also named by their peers to the list of America's Top Doctors (ATD), a [...]

The New York Times reports on the use of neck-lifts, a plastic surgery procedure to improve sagging necks and double chins. The Times interviewed William Y. Hoffman, M.D. (pictured right), Professor and Chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCSF for the story.
NECKS don't lie. Sagging there betrays age like the rings on a tree, and now-common Botox and fillers in the face make neck imperfections stand out in stark relief. In her 2006 best-seller, "I Feel Bad About [...]

William Y. Hoffman, M.D., Chief of the Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, has led a successful effort to pass legislation in California via the Cleft Palate Foundation greatly expanding insurance coverage for children with disfiguring cleft palate and other craniofacial anomalies. Hoffman, a pioneer of cranial re-animation surgery and acknowledged innovator in the field, performs complex and intricate surgeries at the UCSF Craniofacial Center.

The Wittgenstein Forum blog reports on a Nevada Appeal article highlighting the benfits of using cranial re-animation surgery to treat Mobius Syndrome, a rare birth defect caused by the absence or underdevelopment of cranial nerves that control eye movement and facial expression. The surgery is performed at UCSF by Dr. William Hoffman.
Miracles happen every day. So they say. But what if you're a family in need of multiple miracles? Such is the case with the Harris clan in Carson City. Their [...]